Mount Whitney Lumber Co., Inc.

'NANUFACTURER,S OF PONDER,OSA PINE - SUGAR PINE. WHITE FIR, = INCENSE CEDAR

Whofesofe Lumber Distribvtion Yord

3O3O E. Wcshington Btvd. Los Angeles 23, Colif. Phone ANgelus 8-Ol7l

New FHA Progrom for Smqller Towns Under Woy Ocfober I

The new FHA program for cities under 15,000 population, which was discussed at the May meeting of the board of directors of NRLDA, will be ready to go by October 1 in the seven areas selected for the experimental program. Approximately 900 communities in the seven areas will be affected. The purpose of the program, which probably will be referred to as the "Certified Agency Program," is to make FHA-insured loans available in smaller towns which have not, generally speaking, heretofore had the benefits of FHA.

Areas in which the trial program will be conducted embrace Northeastern, Middle Atlantic, Carolina, Illinois, Southwestern, Ari2ona, and in the case of tfie Upper Peninsula of Micl.igan, probably both Wisconsin and Michigan.

Under this new program FHA will appoint an approved lender as its agent to process FHA loans in these smaller communities. The entire processing procedure will be done at the local level with the assistance of FHA-approved and appointed appraisers and inspectors and then the final papers will be sent to FHA for mortgage insurance approval.

It is interesting to know that the forms required to process an FHA loan under this new program have been reduced to less than half of those presently required by FHA. Copies of these forms and the procedure will be available in early October. The trial program is scheduled to operate for one year, after which time FHA proposes to extend the program to similar communities in every state throughout the nation.

The Part of the Retail Lumber Dealer

This program has very far-reaching implications for the building industry and for the retail lumber dealer. If it is successful in reducing red tape, processing time, and bring- ing to these smaller communities the benefit of FHA's lower down payments and longer terms, and at the same time bringing to these communities local lender participation, plus bringing in money from outside lenders, the program is going to be very much worthwhile. it is quite evid6nt that if this simplified means of processing and securing commitments for FHA insurance operates successfully in these areas, that eventually the pressure will be on to extend the program to areas of larger size and if the simplified procedure works in one area, franklv. it should work in all areas and there will undoubt6dly be substantial political pressure to accomplish this very purpose.

All of the industry groups such as those listed in the last paragraph of the FHA release, including important financial g'roups, are enthusiastic about the program. All have agreed to work with FHA and the state directors in the area involved to put the program over, so that the industry generallv can benefit bv it.

"We want to see the retail lumber dealer benefit from this program and we believe that FHA is counting heavily on our industry's support in the areas concerned. We say to the areas involved in the trial program that if this thing works, we have got something good and something of some very substantial benefit to our industry in any number of ways," said H. R. Northup, Executive Vice-President, National Retail Lumber Dealers Association.

Copy of FHA Release:

Representatives of the building, real estate, and homefinancing industries met in the office of FHA Commissioner Norman P. Mason September 4 to hear the details of an experimental program intended to carry FHA's loan insurance benefits into seven selected areas typical of those seldom reached by FHA's service.

Graham Northup, FHA's Director of Programs who is supervising the operation of the new plan, say- the program

By CARGO from Our Mills ot Coos Boy ond Wdrehouse ond Yord ot Berth I35, Wilmington